Three till Seven

I watched the Atlanta auditions of So You Think You Can Dance and I was extremely impressed with Phillip Chbeeb’s performance. The liquid-arm movement and the box he made with his head (popping-and-locking style of Madonna’s “Vogue” movement?) were really cool. I also loved the music he danced to, but I’ve had the worst time trying to figure out what song it is. I even found Chbeeb on Facebook, messaged him, and he replied that So You Think You Can Dance just gave him the music, that he didn’t know what the song was either. Crap! If anyone knows, I’d love to buy it on iTunes, so tell me please, haha.

Other than that, I’ve just been working hard and bringing home the bacon, though Lexmark paid me for only 32 hours this week instead of 40; my manager’s looking into that now. I’m not too worried about it; I’ll get my money eventually.

Todd and I went to see 28 Weeks Later tonight and I really enjoyed it. I loved how it was so sad and creepy. True, the characters seemed really inclined to make the stupidest possible choices, but it was still enjoyable. Todd didn’t like it at all because he thought it was just stupid. He didn’t understand why they didn’t just nuke the place instead of fire bombing it, since nuking would have definitely eradicated the infected, whereas fire bombing let a lot of them escape. I’ve got to look it up on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes to see how others liked it.

This past Saturday’s plans had included a trip to Kings Island since Lexmark gave me two free tickets, but Todd and I decided against that when we considered 1) it might rain, 2) it was a long drive, 3) if it didn’t rain it would be hot, and 4) long lines. Instead, I bought The Sims 2 Seasons expansion pack and, OMG, I have been playing it nonstop since. I love that the weather changes for my Sims now, and they can have a garden and go fishing. For once I made a family (a woman and her two dogs) and I’ve stuck with it. I tend to create families and their houses, then get bored and go create new ones. This one I started out with the woman being an Adult, and now she’s become an Elder and I’m sad because she’s old. My first dog, Gary, died recently and that made me sad, too. Haha, I’m getting all emotional about my Sims.

I went to a yoga class tonight that Kathy and I are going to start attending. It went much better than the only other yoga class I’ve been to, which I took about two years ago at UK. This one was more relaxed and the instructor kept stressing that it didn’t matter if we weren’t flexible enough to do the poses fully, it wasn’t a competition. I had to stop several times, stay in some comfortable pose for a minute, and then get back into the pose we were doing. I got pretty good, in my opinion, at doing the Downward-Facing Dog by the end of it. We worked a lot on perfecting the transition from that pose to a semi-pushup pose, then to Cobra pose, then back through to Downward-Facing Dog again. It was quite a workout but I feel flexible, even if only slightly, than I did when I started.

Todd and I spent the weekend at my parents’ house. Todd learned to drive a manual transmission car by driving around in my parents’ old Renault LeCar from the 80’s. It’s about the size of a VW Beetle and has spent the past few years surrounded in weeds in the field. My dad got it running by pouring gasoline directly into the engine and playing with the choke while trying to start it. It also took a lot of patience and a sizable time investment; that car did not want to start. He thinks there’s an exhaust problem because it was so weak, but it’s not like that matters since no one drives it anymore. Todd also got some practice in an 80-something S10 truck that Dad bought for parts. Surprisingly, the truck still runs; I don’t know if he’ll use the engine in one of his projects or not. I got photos of Todd tooling around in the field in that itty bitty, faded red car; hilarious. Edit: I posted two photos on Flickr: Todd and my dad in the LeCar and Todd and my dad in the LeCar #2.

I got an email the other day from someone wanting to advertise on 3till7. She was interested in one of my more obscure photo pages, which surprised me. The whole request surprised me, actually, because while I get a decent amount of traffic, I don’t think I get enough to really make someone some money. I turned down the offer politely, saying that I think advertisements would give 3till7 the air that I’m interested in doing it for more than the joy of web design; that is, money.

I’m going through the stack of junk mail that had been collecting on my coffee table. No thank you, Home Depot, I do not want a credit card. Oh goody, I’ve been selected to receive two free camera phones! Honestly, who believes offers like that? I got a really good spam earlier today, though, in my email. The email address was from eBay and it looked like an official eBay email, with its graphics from eBay and everything, but all the links (for me to confirm my personal information, of course) pointed to some address beginning in “ftp://”. Thank goodness for Gmail’s “Report phishing” feature.

Now to continue sorting mail, which will be followed by doing the dishes and putting away my laundry and suitcase from this weekend.

Pfhew, I’m glad to be home. I worked over nine hours today and yesterday, trying to make up for tomorrow, when I’ll be taking off half a day in order to go to an out-of-state wedding with Todd and Matt. I’m now sitting around in pajamas, enjoying the A.C. and waiting on Jess to come over. She won’t be here for an hour or more though, so I’m pretty much relaxing until then. I’m rereading Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K. Hamilton, which marks the last of what is, in my opinion, the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. Everything after this book, book 9, is crap. The author turned an interesting and admirable character into a slut, and I’ve got no interest in spending money on such sludge, especially if it gives the author or her publisher the idea that people want to read it. I was reading reviews on Amazon the other day about the latest books in the series. You’ll notice that books 1-9 have an average rating of around 4/5 stars. After that, they drop, and the reader reviews themselves are terrible. I don’t understand if Hamilton didn’t date anybody for years herself, and thus felt some urge to write smut, or if she sold out because it might’ve spiked her sales. I can’t see how; the series before was entertaining and engaging, and now it’s just as trashy as hundreds of other novels out there. But I’ll end this mini-rant.

The girls and I will be having a Harry Potter party before the new movie comes out in July in order to re-watch movies 1-4. I’m excited but I’ll have to brace myself: that’s a lot of sitting on my butt, watching a TV screen! Ashlee isn’t coming with us to the theater to watch the fifth movie, which sucks. Jess and I didn’t snag her in time before her boyfriend. Funny that, her boyfriend wanting to watch a Harry Potter movie; the idea of Todd asking to go is laughable. I think he dislikes the series from a combination of disliking the hype around it and also not liking the fantasy genre. If only I could convince him how awesome it is…

I spent the past weekend in West Virginia for Todd’s friend Russell’s wedding. It was cool because I’d never been to a Jewish wedding before; it was very different from the various Christian weddings I’ve attended. We got in town Friday night and went to a baseball game with all the wedding guests. Russell gave us tickets to get free beer and food from a buffet. While I didn’t partake in the liquor, I hit up the buffet line and water bottles pretty hard; it had been a long drive. We all hung out, and I met a few new people whose company I enjoyed. As it got later, we decided to ambush Russell and give him a quasi-bachelor’s party. We got back to our hotel and the group had split up to buy liquor. The hotel had set up the hospitality suite for our group, I guess since so many people were staying there because of the wedding. Who knows, maybe the family paid for that, too; they certainly didn’t scrimp anywhere else throughout the weekend. Anyway, from the hospitality suite, we procured a gigantic bottle of Absolut, a bottle of Jack Daniel’s (which I have here with me now, long story, so I can tell you it’s 1.75 liters), and various beers and colas. Everyone congregated together in our hotel room, one guy bringing a case of beer, Matt and Alyssa bringing various wines back. We all hung around drinking and talking, Russell progressively getting more red in the eyes and slurred in speech. We ended up going to a local bar after a while, which was a surprise for me because I didn’t get carded; Matt and Alyssa paid our cover charge and I just got to stroll right in. I didn’t try to order anything, though, so that may have made a difference. Russell spent the whole bar visit propped against me, telling me crazy things and laughing a lot. We eventually went back to the hotel where Russell spent a rough, vomit-y night on the floor between the beds. Er, that’s not to say he vomited on our room’s floor; he got most of it in the toilet, an empty ice bucket, and the bathtub. I think he had a good time, despite getting drunk.

Saturday morning, bright and early, we went to synagogue for regular service and to hear Russell read the Torah. I know jack about Jewish beliefs, other than the lack of Jesus bit, so it was interesting attending a service. The entire thing, pretty much, was sang to us in what I assume was Yiddish. Trying to read from the prayer book was tricky, too, since it was also in another language, one which read right-to-left, though it did have English translations on the opposite page. After that was lunch in the hospitality room, followed by a nap by Todd, me, Alyssa, and Matt in our hotel room—the night before wiped us out, and we’d only gotten a few hours sleep in the night. After the nap, we hit up the mall and did some light shopping. We killed time there and at a farmer’s market afterward, waiting for the rehearsal dinner. The farmer’s market was really neat; lots of outdoor plants, and the indoor area was filled with produce shopping as well as quaint cooking supplies. I ended up buying a jar of honey with honeycomb in it and some dried papaya chunks, which turned out to be obscenely sweet. I think I’m going to fix them with pork chops and sauteed peppers, thanks to Alyssa’s suggestion, since they’re a bit much to eat by themselves.

The rehearsal dinner was fantastic. It was held at the most swank law office I’ve ever been to; I don’t understand how those lawyers get any work done with a hot tub and gym in a building nestled back in beautiful woods. The food was great, as it had been the rest of the times they fed us, which was often. Every table you saw, inside and out on the patio, was covered in food; someone like me, who loves to eat, was in heaven. They had the kind of pretty dessert cakes that make you almost sad to eat, too, because they’re so lovely. Eat them we did, though, haha. After dinner and several hours of talking with guests, the crowd dispersed and our group headed back to the hotel. Alyssa went out to hang with a local friend of hers, but Matt, Todd, and I fell asleep watching Men in Black in our hotel room.

This morning was the wedding at another gorgeous location: a country club. More singing by the rabbi, pretty music by a string quartet, and the interesting tradition of waving the newlyweds on chairs held aloft by other guests. Another giant, delicious meal, then it was time to change into comfy clothes and begin the trip home; poor Matt had to ride several hours with us, then another 7-8 worth of driving back to Chicago. I did some dishes, unpacked, fixed spaghetti and French bread for mine and Todd’s dinner, and hit up the grocery store with Todd. Now I aim to relax a bit and watch TV. Hope everyone else had as good a weekend as I did.

Ooh, before I finish this off, I just wanted to note a couple observations I made about West Virginia: the weather was extremely mild and pleasant while we were there. We left the window in our hotel room open the entire time because of the nice breezes, and it wasn’t roasting outside. Also, despite being in a fairly large city, the traffic was minute; we had very relaxed driving conditions getting around to the various wedding-related events because there was hardly anyone else on the road. That was a great change from Lexington’s hectic drivers. It was definitely a place I’d enjoy traveling to again. I also thought the bride’s family was incredibly generous; they provided entertainment and great food for us at every turn, and every time I had the opportunity to talk with one of them, they were pleasant and funny. It was just a really nice weekend for me and the rest of us.

I got very tickled today when I received not one but two emails from two different people, saying they’d seen my profile in two different Ruby/Rails sites and wanted to know if I would be interested in a programming job. I had to turn them both down, saying I’m currently trying to finish my degree, but I love that I even got noticed. Here’s hoping such offers are still flying around next summer when I’ll need a job, and especially after I graduate. In other work-related news, I met with a guy in Lexmark’s HR today to talk about the possibility of me working at Lexmark in the future as a regular employee instead of a co-op. He gave me some pointers on my resume and said he’d talk with another HR person about setting up some exploratory interviews with other managers, so I can get a feel for what other opportunities there are. I love the position I currently have, but if my manager is unable to bring me back next summer due to budget constraints, it’d be nice to have an idea of where I would like to apply for an internship.

Todd shared with me the funniest damn 5-second chipmunk video today that I’ve ever seen. Jess didn’t get the humor when I showed it to her, but it was totally up my alley. Very bum-bum-bummmmm dramatic.

So I haven’t updated in several days, but that’s because nothing has been happening. I get up, fumble my way through a bowl of cereal, and get ready. Getting ready for the day has become much easier since I bought some new makeup a while back. Mascara has always been an annoyance to me because you can’t just put it on straight from the tube, or at least not with the crap I was using. Granted, the tube was about a year old, but it still clumped up and turned your lashes into a single hunk when you put it on when it was new. I bought some new stuff, though, that’s specifically for keeping your lashes apart, and by gum it works. No more wiping and squeezing the wand with toilet paper beforehand. So let’s see, what else, what else… Well, after I get ready, I go to work, then I come home and make some dinner, then I putter around the apartment or go work out, depending on the day. There’s no room for excitement in that schedule! Honestly, I’m not keeping The Daring Adventures of Sarah secret from you all.

Ooh, one nice thing that has happened, though, occurred in yoga last night. I started taking the class a couple weeks ago and it’s been pleasant so far because it’s so relaxing. Last night was the first obvious benefit I’ve seen from it, though. Normally, I can touch my toes, but I can’t put all five fingers on the ground without bending my knees because I’m stiff as a rail. Well, in doing a Forward Fold last night, I was able to. I was so excited because it’s a clear sign that I’m getting more flexible. We also learned a full Sun Salutation series and it was good to have a defined series of steps instead of just individual things to do.

I made a really easy but good meal earlier this week: broiled tilapia parmesan with peas and salad. It was surprisingly quick, but then I’d never broiled anything before so I didn’t know it would be so fast. It took 6 minutes to fix three fish in a pan, and turned out very light and lemony. Another seafood dish I’m planning to make will be linguine alfredo with bits of crab (well, imitation crab because the real stuff is so expensive) in the alfredo sauce, bread sticks, then a banana cream pie for dessert.

I become such a slacker about doing my usual web activities when I’m doing a co-op rotation. You spend eight hours in front of a computer and you just don’t want to do it anymore when you get some free time. The next two semesters should be pretty good for me being online, though, since I’ll be taking classes full time this fall and next spring. Summer 2008 I’m hoping to be working full time somewhere, trying to keep my income up, because I doubt there will be any classes offered at UK that I’ll need. Kathy’s son attends Georgia Tech and he co-ops, too, and G.T. offers one summer term, 12 weeks long. All classes that are offered during the regular semesters are also offered during the summer. They do that, she said, for the purpose of helping co-ops, which makes me think the co-op program is a bigger deal there than it is at UK. We have two summer terms, a 4-week and an 8-week, and the more high-level a course is, the less likely you are to find it offered during the summer it seems. That’s one of the caveats of our co-op program: it sets you back about a year in your schooling. I’ve taken a few summer classes when I could to try and offset that, but I’m still not as far along as my peers that haven’t participated in the program. I don’t regret taking part at all, for one because it has been very beneficial to get a taste of the field I’m kind of committing my life to, and also because the idea of graduating is a scary one.

Mine and Todd’s attempts at lizard wrangling today have been unsuccessful. The same little gray lizard has been spotted on his parents’ front porch twice now, and both times he has escaped along the wall when we’ve gone after him. The first time he ducked around my foot, and the second time he ran under my leg when Todd lifted the concrete planter under which he was hiding. Sneaky leezard.

Jeez, so I just remembered the point I was going to make in the first paragraph before I got distracted with discussing the co-op program. I was going to say that I’m itching to make a new layout for this site, and also to get into reading other people’s blogs again. I think the content could use some work, too, removing some unnecessary middle-man pages and just linking pages directly from the sub-sections ‘About, ‘For You’, etc. Who knows when I’ll get around to this sort of thing, though, since I’ll probably work till late August at Lexmark. Todd and I are trying to think of when we’ll get up to Chicago to visit Matt again, and we’re hoping this fall sometime. I may have to take off work for that, or it may be after I’ve stopped working for the term and am in a brief vacation before classes start again. We’re planning to visit a couple of museums we didn’t visit last time, and also to go shopping, since we really didn’t get to before.

Whoo, lots of things happening, including me being half asleep due to some Benadryl I took earlier, so here’s hoping this entry will make sense. I’ll just make a big list of recent events:

• Dr. Zoidberg died. The poor little guy just fell out of his shell the other night when Todd picked him up. We thought he’d been looking grayish for a while, and he hadn’t been as active. I’m thinking about picking up another crab to join Ricky Bobby so he won’t be lonely.
• Todd and I went on a tour of Maker’s Mark distillery today with a Lexmark group. It was very interesting and I got a lot more enjoyment out of it than I had expected. They let us play around in big wooden bins full of mash. Some had a really thick, doughy crust of mash on top, others had just a thin layer, depending on how far along in the process they were. You could breathe in the fumes of some and burn your nose, while others had a very mild alcoholic scent.
• Todd, Eric, Kelly, Brent, and I are going to see Ratatouille tonight, and boy am I looking forward to it. I’ve loved the other Pixar films and it’s always exciting when a new one comes out.
• Kathy, Elaine, and I went shopping last night. In the middle of Sears, when opening my phone to pester Todd, the display went out on my phone. Todd thinks a wire in there finally snapped after two years of use. Turning it off and back on didn’t help, nor did taking the battery out and replacing it. It still dialed and seemed to function normally, I just couldn’t see anything. At least it had the good grace to die in a mall, so after 1.5 hours of standing around in a cell phone store, I walked out with a new phone: the LG CU400. It’s pretty sleek looking, has a camera and video-recording capabilities, but other than that, the battery life was good and I can do what I want with it: talk and text message.